As I recall, there was a version of Amazing Grace that became a mainstream radio hit in the late '60s or early '70s (no, not Scotch on the Rocks, nor yet Judy Collins). It was sung to the usual tune, but it had a much more interesting harmony than the one I'm stuck with on Sundays (from the Episcopal Hymnal). It was kind of bluesy. Can anybody point me to what it was?

The variation I have heard the most, although it's not one of my favorite things, has been the substitution of the tune of "House of the Rising Sun". My wife has sung Amazing Grace to the tune "The Water is Wide" a few times; I takes just a little tweaking, as: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a drifting soul like me; I once was lost, but now am found; I once was blind, but now I see.

We added one home-made verse when doing that: Though grace may grow familiar now, Like any song, sung one old way, Lord, touch my heart, lest I forget, Thy grace is new, each breaking day.

The old hymnals didn't call that metric pattern "Common Meter" for nothing, did they? 8/6/8/6 iambic. Almost the entire Scottish Psalter is set to common meter tunes. Grab an old hymnbook and look through the "metrical index" and you'll have hundreds of choices. -Glenn

The Oz National Anthem, "Advance Australia Fair" is one of those that is interchangeable with Amazing Grace, House of the Rising Sun, Gilligan's Island etc. It's especially fun to sing either of the serious ones to Gilligan's Island.

*goes off singing* Australians all let us rejoice For we are young and free, We've golden soil and wealth for toil Our home is girt by sea, our home is girt by sea....

I did a (very) little research into tunes which actually were used for "Amazing Grace", according to hymnals. As mentioned above and elsewhere, many common meter tunes will work, metrically at least, but these are some which beyond question were used:

Hephzibah - by John Jenkins Husband. This is the first known pairing of a tune to Newton's text, in A Companion to the Countess of Huntingdon's Hymns (London, 1808). I was unable to find a transcription of the tune, however.

New Britian - composer unknown. The now standard tune, first paired with the text in William Walker's Southern Harmony (1835). The tune appears to be a combination of two tunes, "Gallaher" and "St. Mary", from Columbian Harmony by Charles H. Spilman and Benjamin Shaw (Cincinnati, 1829). "New Britain" itself appeared earlier in Vir­gin­ia Har­mo­ny, by James P. Car­rell & Da­vid S. Clay­ton (Win­ches­ter, Vir­gin­ia: 1831)

Corinth - the tune name is ambiguous, and the likely suspects ("Benediction", "Tantum Ergo" or the "Corinths" in the Sacred Harp [32t] or the Hesperian Harp [43]) don't match the AG text well, having either six lines instead of four or the wrong meter.

At the Cross (where I first saw the light) - music by Ralph E. Hudson, 1885, recorded to this tune by Fiddlin' John Carson. (But I think this one is better: At the Cross There's Room, music by Robert Lowry.)

Took my mother to her early church service today. It was my first live exposure to a Sunday service with a "praise band," complete with screen with the words on it

At the end of the service, the associate pastor invited all to stand and sing "Amazing Grace." As I helped my mother rise to her feet she said, "You aren't going to like the way we sing "Amazing Grace."

They sang the verses to the Eagle's "Peaceful, Easy Feeling," using the same chorus the Eagle's sing, except they substitute "holy" for "solid" ground.

The old hymnals didn't call that metric pattern "Common Meter" for nothing, did they? 8/6/8/6 iambic. Almost the entire Scottish Psalter is set to common meter tunes. .,,.,. And think of all the ballads sung in that meter too. So you could sing AG to the tune of Sir Patrick Spens, or The Bitter Withy, or Little Musgrave & Lady Barnard, or........ or any of them to its tune, for that matter.

As I have frequently remarked on this forum, it is only a sort of convention that relates a particular tune to a particular ballad ~~ & then it doesn't always hold permanently: look e.g. how Fause Foudrage has got confused with Willie O Winsbury.

My favorite - except the original - is at Christmas. It fits perfectly to Joy to the World

Singing that one through in my head ...

A-mazing Grace, how sweet the sound. That saved, a wretch, like me. I o-nce wa-s lo-o-ost But no-w a-m fou-ou-ound. Was blind but now I see, wa-s blind but now I see. Was Bli-ind, was bli-i-ind, but now I see.